This is sort of an American bachelor’s dinner, or midnight pasta, and with a dash of Iberia instead of Italia. Without the need to wait for water to boil, it’s even faster than the classic Italian modes.
Another thing in its favor is that it’s open-ended; it welcomes improvisation, probably even more the pasta equivalents (if there’s time and some supples to let the imagination run).
The basic formula, from a list of 101 meals that could be prepared in 10 minutes or less, later edited up to 111, created by Mark Bittman many years ago:
40 Put a large can of chickpeas and their liquid in a medium saucepan. Add some sherry, along with olive oil, plenty of minced garlic, smoked pimentón and chopped Spanish chorizo. Heat through.
I’ve put this simple dish on the table many times, and I blogged about it once, 4 years ago, when I said, “We’ve enjoyed it with leftover wilted kale, collards, or other greens, but I can imagine any number of other cooked vegetables working as enhancements, giving them a chance to leave the refrigerator and shine a second time.”
Last Saturday, returning home from a preview of a new production of Christopher Shinn’s ‘Dying CIty’ at 2nd Stage Theater [“this quiet, transfixing tale of grief and violence” – Ben Brantley writing in 2017], not wanting to do anything the least bit complicated that night, after a long absence I returned once again to Bittman’s simple chickpea/chorizo formula. This time, while I used 3 cloves of hard garlic, in spite of the fact that they’re not now locally in season, I did add some chopped spring garlic stems at the end, and a miscellany of herbs I had on hand that, conveniently, had already been chopped.
- the chorizo was ‘Natural Chorizo with Brandy Sausage’ from North Country Smokehouse, in New Hampshire, via Chelsea Whole Foods Market, and the boiled chick peas were Bioitalia, also, I believe, from Whole Foods
- the wine was a delightful, smooth California (Central Coast/Paso Robles) red, Richard Bruno Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2017, from Naked Wines
- the music was Daniel Wohl‘s album, ‘État’
[the image of the composer is from his own website, Daniel Wohl]